Looking Forward

I just saw The Force Awakens.

It was an okay movie. It does not live up to the hype.

But then again, it never could have. It was the Duke Nukem Forever of movies: something that had been bouncing from production to production that we all wanted and were excited about, but came many years too late. If the idea of what something could be stays in your creative mind long enough, what it turns out to be can never be as cool.

But I see something in this movie. I see a promise. Disney is promising that it will not lose the spirit of episodes IV through VI. J. J. Abrams is promising us skill and good direction in the future films he works on.

I see that in the end, VII is the not the movie we were looking for. It is a promise that VIII will kick it's ass and blow our minds.

I'm holding everyone involved to that promise.

How I Run

I ran across an article that had a questionnaire I felt obligated to fill out, found here. I reason that the only way to really examine how you feel about running a game is to sit down and actually write out the house rules you use. The original article is in blue, answers are in red.

Jeff Rients has a great list of 20 quick questions to add detail to your campaign setting in ways that are likely to affect actual play. I was thinking, based on this other post by Jeff about treating all editions of D&D as a toolbox and this post by JB over at B/X Blackrazor about creating his own version of D&D, that it would be useful to have a list rules that often change from campaign to campaign.

Here are 20 rules clarifications that are likely to be needed anyways at some point.

1. Ability scores generation method?

Pathfinder, D&D and others like it- Roll 4d6, remove the lowest, and arrange as you like. Anima- roll 2d10, keep the highest, arrange as desired. I do not allow rerolls.

2. How are death and dying handled?

Depends on the game, but in general there are negative hit points that tick away at a rate of one per round until you die. Successful first aid can stabilize you.

3. What about raising the dead?

Generally, not a thing in any game I run, though I can run a quest type adventure to find a means of doing so. Otherwise, tough shit for the dead.

4. How are replacement PCs handled?

If at all possible I will try to find context for introduction and work with the player in question. Otherwise it is usually via in game circumstances. Beware of my deals, though…

5. Initiative: individual, group, or something else?

Group if at all possible. In most games it will be via a d6. In games like Anima that use weapons speeds and similar shit, one player rolls and the others add their modifiers to that one roll.

6. Are there critical hits and fumbles? How do they work?

Yes. Unless the game system has something better built in, a critical is usually double damage OR damage plus a disadvantage, chosen by the attacker. Fumbles are usually a penalty of some sort, often slipping, dropping a weapon, or open to a counter attack.

7. Do I get any benefits for wearing a helmet?

Unless the game has something better, a helmet lets you keep your armor bonus if you peek around something and are subjected to an attack.

8. Can I hurt my friends if I fire into melee or do something similarly silly?

Yup. Anything that provides cover will, an if the dice say the cover is the only thing that stopped the attack, the cover is hit. Even allies.

9. Will we need to run from some encounters, or will we be able to kill everything?

In many cases, run if you can. I let the dice fall where they may, even if they say an adult dragon spotted your first level party and is hungry. If you plan like a fucking boss, you might just be able to kill almost everything, but I can safely say that in my games charging into battle is not recommended.

10. Level-draining monsters: yes or no?

If they are there, they are there.

11. Are there going to be cases where a failed save results in PC death?

Yup. The dice shall fall where they may.

12. How strictly are encumbrance & resources tracked?

In as much detail as possible, I ask that players record what they have and where. As far as encumbrance goes I tend to eyeball it, but it is a factor. Just expect me to declare bullshit if you say that you are somehow lugging around thousands of gold coins and have only a backpack and ordinary strength.

13. What's required when my PC gains a level? Training? Do I get new spells automatically? Can it happen in the middle of an adventure, or do I have to wait for down time?

As a rule, it happens at the end of an adventure or session, whichever comes first, as leveling to me is an epiphany moment when activities and training done during down time suddenly pays off and makes sense. Only note that games with built-in training systems do overrule this judgement.

14. What do I get experience for?

Impressing the hell out of me. I am impressed by surviving combat, stealing legendary treasures, outwitting your enemies, clever plans, and bold insights into the nature of the game world and your character’s place within it.

15. How are traps located? Description, dice rolling, or some combination?

Description followed by dice roll. As evidenced in my own house, sometimes the most thorough grid search of a room cannot turn up successful if the one searching is imperceptive, while sometimes all a perceptive person needs is a glance. However, if you give more than “I search for traps” I will be more inclined to lower the difficulty depending on what you give me.

16. Are retainers encouraged and how does morale work?

I encourage them. Basically they are NPCs that I run like living beings with needs, wants and fears. If your torch bearer is a ten-year-old boy, he will probably run and hide if something dangerous shows up.

17. How do I identify magic items?

If you have a way to see magic, by studying the auras of the thing. If not, hardy experimentation with a dose of trial and error.

18. Can I buy magic items? Oh, come on: how about just potions?

As a rule, no. Some potions and scrolls might be available for sale in limited supply. Otherwise, I will run it like trying to commission a one-of-a-kind item only one artisan can produce that may turn into an adventure in and of itself.

19. Can I create magic items? When and how?

If you have the skill, probably. You cannot just slam gold down and expect to have everything you need, though. You will require materials, those material will be rare and difficult to get, and will cost gold and/or time to acquire.

20. What about splitting the party?

All the fucking time. I will run a session with each group in the split as I gauge interest. If you went off alone to shop, expect little to no screen time if the other guys are busy burning down an inn or sack tapping goblins or trying to escape from a dungeon or some shit.

All in all, I'm glad my style of running the game looks like this.

Starting Over

I killed them. I have killed almost all of them. One I left alive, for it has family else where, and while it wold not be necessarily cruel to take it from this world, I felt it still has a place in this world. The rest did not, so they are gone.

I have changed. That is good, I believe. Only dead things do not change. I have forgotten this blog and read the old articles. I hated them. The one I have kept alive was still good and true, and there were some good and true things in the others. The fact was that who I was before was incompetent in expressing the true, bogging it down with short-sighted shit and half finished ideas.

It is not enough. I want to write, and I want that writing to be well thought out. So here I shed away the dead layers that bury what truth I have, letting the rotting remains of my older, more inept self becoming compost for better writing tomorrow.

Constructive Conflict

I have several stories about bad games I have both played and run. This is a result of three items that are unique to my case:

1. While I am a member of the D&D3 generation, I started playing at thirteen with my parents, who were individuals who grew up having adventures in real life and in old school RPGs, like AD&D. They were my first GMs and my first players, and a good half of the reason anyone wants to play in my games- I learned from awesome people.
2. I grew up in a crappy little town where there really was only one game in town, and the GM was an ass. Rather than put up with his shit, a started a new game on a different day, and people followed me, kept playing with the ass, or created their own groups that played with or talked to mine.
3. While I live in the Portland area, I do not have the means or inclination to go to convention games or gaming events. Instead, I played with my group in public settings for several years, and had a standing invitation to all spectators to join or watch. Thus, while I do have experience with gaming outside my regular group, I get a lot of newbies.

So, in enters this post, which led later to this post and this one. Understand that Alexis is incredibly intelligent, has had years (no, decades!) of game experience, and if he has not been declared so already I will stand up for his right to be known as an expert in the field. But I disagree with with his assertion that Player versus Player conflict is universally bad for RPGs.

To give an example, I have played one character that wanted to die. Fitz the Fighter (I was 17) was bitten by a werewolf, he turned, and the rest of the party woke up to me munching on the horses. This was back under the crappy GM, and he had a rule that if we were turned into a monster, that meant surrendering your character sheet when were we in monster mode (a fair rule that I use), but also that the change was irreversible after the first kill. We all knew this, so my fighter commissioned an expertly crafted silver sword he was going to throw himself on. The GM declared that I could not commit suicide. So I offered to bind myself in silver chains and have a fellow party member execute me. Everyone in the party volunteered, and the GM said they could not, not even the evil characters. When I noted that he said lawful characters could not murder someone, I challenged a paladin to a duel (which the GM made clear in previous games is not murder!), which he accepted. The GM said no still, and said under no circumstances were players to kill players.

Maybe the tale of Fitz is unique, and even if not it is an extreme case. But there are forms of PVP that are deemed acceptable out there and are not considered disruptive. Hell, if a GM charms a player and the charmer commands the player to fight, the only options are PVP or remove a player from play. And even if compulsion or manipulation are not factors, Player versus Player does not end only in death. Conflict between players scales and changes depending on context just like any other interaction. In the same category can include things like mind reading, athletic contests, dueling skills, sparring, and physical venting.

Sparring is an essential one to me. I run and play games where skills have to be learned in game, including combat skills. Most such systems require an instructor, but some of my favorite games (Anima, for example) just give students accelerated learning scales when a teacher works with them. For combat skills, these will include sparring matches. As someone who has taken martial arts classes and plays with martial artists and former military, I can say that sparring is a great way to learn with some bruising and minimal injury and death. I allow and have seen other GMs allow players to learn skills from each other, so why not include combat skills? More than that, we are talking about games here. Games with lots of fiddly rules and terminology that people forget. So if a group wants to run a mock combat with one another to work on tactics, I say let them. I learned so many tricks of the fight during sessions like this, because it is not just your fictional masterpiece of a character improving, but the player as well.

One thing of note that must be stated: I am not, and will never, advocate antisocial behavior in games. A party member harassed by his fellows will lash out. Granted, if I do not catch on to it in time I would prefer it to be in game rather than a flashed knife across the table. I had that happen a few times, and it was not fun. I have thrown people out of games for attempting to steal from players characters, let alone trying to kill them in their sleep. But I will allow inter party conflict if it flows from the story. Fitz was a good and heroic man who could not let a monster be a threat to others, even if the monster was himself.  Sometimes players actually want to act out a betrayal, for shits and giggles, just to move the game forward, or because what ever is in front of them is just not fun without it. And if everyone wants to participate, why not let them? If a players character is art, it is a story telling art, and tragedy can be just as compelling as heroics. RPGs are only strange in that the victim needs to give consent.

All I want to push is take a lesson from the BDSM community:
"Obtain consent from all persons involved, always ask if your partner is okay, and have a safe word for if things get too intense for 'stop' to make sense in context."

In the end, I will accept that Player versus Player is universally evil if someone who has experience with both RPGs and BDSM can provide me evidence that BDSM is universally evil.